Another self-hosted IT blog…but why?!

I feel an obligation to explain myself with this first post.

“What in your insignificant egotistical little mind makes you think any of your opinions or experiences are relevant enough to require yet another IT blog?!?“

It’s true. I’m not the most experienced, most certified or most talented IT professional. I won’t be writing anything ground-breaking, particularly original or thought provoking.

Like most, I’ll be using a blog to document my own findings, to keep myself accountable in terms of educational development and career progression, and to have some kind of online presence…I’m not a fan of social media!

But there’s also the aspect of helping out others in the same binary boat (oh dear…) that I find attractive. In my short time as an IT professional, while trawling online for solutions to what I considered to be vague and unique problems, personal blog posts have on countless occasions provided me with the exact fix I was looking for. Sure, people often say (half-jokingly) that one key skill every IT professional needs to be proficient at is Google. But Google isn’t much use without the content it indexes. I have an appreciation for anybody who puts in that extra bit of effort, after expending their own time researching and troubleshooting, to share their findings for the benefit of complete strangers. It’s cliched to say, but if just one person finds my blog beneficial in resolving an issue they’re experiencing, I will at least have paid forward some of that knowledge debt. 

The final push to start this blog came from the Packet Pushers podcast. The below two podcasts, released just a few days apart, both touch on personal and professional reasons for blogging. Check them out if you’re on the fence about starting your own blog!

Datanauts 171: The Joy Of Engineering With William Lam

Heavy Networking 464: Provocative Statements With Tom Hollingsworth